![]() ![]() At such times-which are already stressful-it can be a bit tricky to select the right plane, given the size of your finger and the limits of the iPhone’s touch resolution. This system works quite well, except when two aircraft are close together. You can see any plane’s planned route by tapping it you’ll see a line connecting any established waypoints. The plane will immediately fly to the first point you tapped, then turn on a dime and head for the second, then the third. First tap a plane to select it, then tap up to three points on the screen where you’d like it to fly. Routing aircraft is done by tapping your iPhone’s screen. If you cause a mid-air, or route a plane incorrectly, you lose-you’ll need to repeat that level until you handle the required number of aircraft without any mistakes. If you fail to keep the planes apart, though, you’ll see a mid-air collision, complete with explosion and sound effects. Because all aircraft are at the same altitude, you really have to plan ahead to keep them out of each other’s way, but you can make quick corrections because planes turn instantly. (Aircraft will move at different rates, but you can’t control that rate.) Landing simply requires lining the aircraft up with the runway the rest is automatic (unless the wind is howling, but that’s for you to discover.)Īt first, I thought this was a negative…but the impact on gameplay is actually terrific. I think the consequences of crashing a plane should be a bit more than just losing a single point!ĪTC 4.0 dispels with any thought of reality-airplanes make turns instantly (including course reversals), and there’s no way to control a plane’s altitude or speed. Crash a plane, or let one escape without landing, and you lose a point. Scoring, too, is quite basic-land a plane, gain a point. Every airplane needs to land at the same airport (no through flights from one point to another), there’s no variable weather, and the occasional emergency is the only thing that adds a degree of uncertainty to the program. The main issue I had with iATC was just the repetitiveness of the program. (I preferred playing in training mode the gameplay itself is otherwise identical in both modes.) Turn off training mode, and you’ll find the game much more challenging-all heading changes must be visualized with the aid of the onscreen compass. In training mode, the radar scope displays compass headings around the outside, and the runways have heading numbers on them as well. In the program’s preferences, you can set the game’s speed (from ‘slow’ to ‘are you nuts?’), the maximum number of planes on the scope at once (up to 15), whether or not to detect collisions, how often you’ll see emergencies, and enable and disable training mode. Similarly, climbs and descents and speed changes take time, so you really have to think about where you want the plane to be soon, as opposed to where it’s at right now. When you command a turn, the plane takes some time to complete the turn, so you have to plan ahead. IATC also models some degree of reality in a plane’s behavior. You do, however, have to worry about collisions between aircraft at the same altitude, and the occasional emergency aircraft-I had a couple arrive with low fuel alerts, meaning they had to land now. There also aren’t any rules regarding landing-any aircraft can land on any of the runways. Weather isn’t a factor in iATC there’s no wind, no rain, and no clouds. Once you have a plane at the proper altitude (500 feet), speed (150 knots or slower), and heading (within +/- 10 degrees of the runway heading), you tap a large command button and issue a landing clearance for one of the airport’s six runways.
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